**Poll** Brink Beta ?

(Z0MBEA5T) #1

should there be a BRINK beta I think so look at how terrible the servers are for Modern warfare 2
why ? because no beta …and look at battlefield bad company 2 with beta i rarely feel any lag so yes my vote is for a beta !

(Kl3ppy) #2

Yeah beta is a must :slight_smile:

(otakustar) #3

pleeze beta, pleeze :stroggtapir:

(Voxie) #4

A open or semi-open beta at the closing stages of development would be nice. Seeing how some, if not most people view betas as an appetizer of the final product as opposed to an initiative from the developers to iron out bugs and test compatibility on a variety of platforms, rushing a beta release is unwise. The Quake Wars beta left a bit of a sour taste in several of my gaming buddies’ mouths, and they ended up waiting for almost a year after its release to purchase it. You can’t get more than one first impression! Keeping true fans from accessing the beta can also be a bad move – just look at the Starcraft II Beta, with keys going for well over 300 dollars on eBay and multiply unauthorized tools to play offline.

(darthmob) #5

I agree with Voxie; a real beta like in ETQW may not be such a good idea because people tend to be stupid and judge it like a demo. A beta with a basically finished game like in CoD5 / BC2 would be nice though.

(INF3RN0) #6

Something like a pre-order beta/demo might be cool. I think that it can really get the hype up for a game if it is put together well.

(murka) #7

hell no to pre-order beta. Maybe to a real beta where keys are passed to smaller groups for testing game flow and trying to break the game.

(INF3RN0) #8

Pre-order beta as in a small portion of the finished game (as in 1-2 weeks before release), and for those who plan on buying the game immediately anyhow. This can help get a head start on unexpected bugs for the patch list as well, and there really isn’t much to lose if it is at the end of development. I am sure that if you were not included in a “smaller test group” you might not want that either :tongue:.

(DarkangelUK) #9

Closed beta only, you can’t trust the masses to realize than an open beta is actually a beta and not demo.

(Nail) #10

no open beta, demo around release date would be nice though

(INF3RN0) #11

Agreed. Early demo to pre-orders was more like what I was saying, but I can wait.

(AnthonyDa) #12

If there is a beta 2 week before the game hits store, that would means that beta = retail.
A beta (if there is any) should come at least 1 month before the game reach “gold” (count 2 more week for store to release it).

(light_sh4v0r) #13

Closed beta: sure can’t hurt and this would be the right time since there is still time to change stuff now.
Open beta is only useful for testing serverload etc in MMO games when they’re finished already.

(INF3RN0) #14

[QUOTE=AnthonyDa;216916]If there is a beta 2 week before the game hits store, that would means that beta = retail.
A beta (if there is any) should come at least 1 month before the game reach “gold” (count 2 more week for store to release it).[/QUOTE]

Yea, in the original games mentioned as a comparison, the beta was pretty much the official game.

(WhiteAden) #15

seconded! I think they should hand pick valuable community members, and give them access to the beta… have like an application / signup sheet for the beta =)

(Qhullu) #16

in an ideal world the developers would be finished making the game early and an open beta would be released a month or two before release date to fix balancing issues and to find some rare bugs that may occur too rarely to catch in q&a. but as it is, nowadays the released version of the game is the open beta, and the developers spend the following months fixing stuff that would’ve been fixed during the beta had there been one (or had there been one that wasn’t so crappy).

in multi player games nowadays, it’s the paying customer who is the beta tester hoping the beta someday turns out to be a product that doesn’t need “updates”.

(mortis) #17

Closed betas are better than open betas, IMO, since so many people treat a beta as if it is a demo, and base their opinions on an unfinished, unpolished product.

(tokamak) #18

It’s been said before but please don’t do an open beta as it only confuses people.

(AnthonyDa) #19

Sounds like a “No open beta, but only a closed one where us, the guy on SD forum can have it because we rules !” to me.

(tokamak) #20

Yeah I know that’s what you want to hear.